Fallout One Half
by Titmeister-x
Summary: Adventures of Ranma and Akane in the Fallout New Vegas. Enjoy an entirely new story that takes the couple through a dark, irradiated world. M for future content. First main arc almost finishe.
1. Chapter 1

She awoke suddenly as a shot of pain lanced through her skull. Opening her eyes as the pain subsided, she quickly noted that it was a bad idea to do so, the bright fluorescent light above the bed she was resting on blinding her and bringing the pain back. After lying still for a minute, she started to sit up and quickly felt a pair of hands on her back supporting her.

"Woah, easy there miss. You've had quite a time the past couple of days," She looked to her left and saw an old man sitting by the bed.

"I feel like I've been shot in the head," sitting up straight made her nauseous and brought the pain in her head back.

"Well, there's a good reason for that. You did get shot in the head. Then you were buried alive. Then dug out and drug a mile across the desert by a Securitron to me where I fixed you up."

"Damn. I didn't think I had that hard of a head."

"Well, for a young'n like yourself, I'm kinda surprised. Now, why don't you tell me your name."

"My name? Akane Tendo. I was coming to New Vegas to meet my family. They had come here a few months ago with a caravan."

"Alright, at least you still have your memory. Now, before I let you out of here, I just wanna run some tests to make sure you are stable."

After a half an hour of questioning, the old man let her go. As she exited, she found herself on the edge of a small town. Ahead, she saw a bar and a general store. She decided to head to the bar. Hopefully, she could find someone to guide her to New Vegas.

Opening the door to the bar she saw a man in a duster at the bar lying face down, snoring loudly.

"Whatcha need honey?" Akane turned and saw a middle aged woman walking out of a storage room.

"Was wondering if you knew someone around here who could get me to New Vegas?"

"Yeah, I do." She walked over to the sleeping man, picked up his empty bottle of scotch, grabbed his hair, pulled him up into a sitting position and brought the bottle whipping around, clocking him in the forehead hard enough to knock him to the floor.

"What the fuck was that for Trudy?" The man yelled as he stood up.

"Too hard to wake you any other way. Young girl that got shot in the head needs an escort to Vegas. You up for it?"

The man turned himself towards Akane for the first time, giving her a good look at him. He stood at a slightly above average height, around 5'11". He was handsome, with a pigtail and light scruff on his chin. He walked over to her and stuck out his hand. "Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."

"No, its fine. Akane Tendo. Can you get me to New Vegas safely?"

"Normally, I would ask if you have the money to make it worth my while, but I highly doubt you do. Give me til tomorrow to get ready, and I'll take you."

"Really? Thank you! I don't know if I will be able to pay you when we get there. I am traveling to meet with the rest of my family, but we don't have much money."

"There will be enough for me to scavenge along the way to make the trip more than worthwhile. May even stay in Vegas for awhile. Do you have any weapons on you?"

"No, I am a martial artist, fists and…other techniques are my go to weapon. If I hadn't been being sniped at by a fuckin 50 cal rifle, I woulda been fine. The other five fiends weren't a problem. That sniper entered late and took me off guard."

"Not bad. Most people couldn't have handled six fiends if they had a machine gun. I practice martial arts too. I'm one of the best. Saotome School of Anything Goes Wasteland Survival Arts."

"Im of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Scavenging Arts! Wow, our families must have been close at one point in time. Anyways, thank you again. I will try and find a place to sleep tonight."

At that moment, Trudy walked up to them, "Hey, Ive got a bed you can use for the night. I highly doubt anyone else will be through this late in the day. Its just over there."

"Thank you Trudy. Ill see you here first thing in the morning Ranma."

As Akane walked off, Trudy leaned over to Ranma, "You take care of that girl. There's something about her…"

"Youre tellin me… Now, where do you keep that straight razor, I gotta shave and sober up."


	2. Chapter 2

The following morning found Akane very wet and very angry as the young pair made their way towards Vegas, heading almost straight northeast.

"You didn't have to wake me up with a bucket of water Ranma. I am not that heavy of a sleeper."

"To the contrary, Trudy had been trying to wake you for almost an hour before I stepped in."

"Okay, so maybe I was a little more tired than usual, I did just get shot in the damn mellon."

"This I know. Who do you think cleaned up after the securitron drug your pretty butt into the doc's office? Those fiends shouldn't have been anywhere near goodsprings."

That comment was met by a silence that held for almost an hour. Finally, akane got tired of the silence.

"So Ranma, why wer-" Ranma cut her off as he cocked his head.

Motioning to her to hunker down, they crept to the top of the rise they were on. Below, Akane saw a deep valley filled with, what appeared to be huge hornets.

"Ranma-"

" Cazadores. Seven of them. Were you trained in ki attacks?" She shook her head, "damn, well, wait here, ill take care of them. Come down only when I signal its safe."

He promptly disappeared, shocking akane. She watched the cazadores buzzing around, then suddenly converge on one spot. Ranma appeared behind them suddenly and lashed out with a fist, ripping the wing off the nearest insect, then hopped away from the group, sending small blasts of blue energy at the creatures, all the while yelling " _Moko Takibasha!_" Akane shook her head in amazement, she knew she was good, but not nearly as good as he was.

Movement in her peripherals caught her attention and she spun around to face the new threat.

* * *

><p>"AAAAAAIIIEEEEEEAAAAA!" The girl's voice echoed through the small canyon and threw Ranma off guard, allowing the cazador he was currently fighting to bite his arm. He growled in pain and quickly brained the thing with a hammer fist to its head and fired of a rapid succession of ki blasts at the remaining two, blowing off their wings and reducing them to writhing carcasses incapable of movement. He quickly spun and hopped up the embankment back to his charge.<p>

Hearing sounds of fighting and gunfire, he quickly readied his ki blast. As he cleared the crest of the hill, he found Akane fighting two raiders. Hiding in the Umisenken technique, he watched her fight the two drugged up crazies.

* * *

><p>She had spun and found two raiders trying to sneak up on her. Screaming loudly to get Ranma's attention, she quickly leapt into action. She sprinted for the raider on the left first, a large man with a sledge hammer. As she neared, he swung the weapon… and got a huge surprise when she caught the head of it with her bare hand. Yanking it out of his hand, she dropped, spun and swept his legs out from under him. Rolling onto her back, she brought her leg up and dropped her booted food directly on to his jaw, creating a guillotine effect and severed his head. She spun up and promptly dropped again as buckshot passed over her by as scant few inches. She rolled behind a rock and brought her newly found hammer out and readied it. Poking the hammer out above the rock, two shots went off.<p>

Akane dashed out of her hiding spot at full speed and lifted the sledge up high ready to smash the other raider.

* * *

><p>The raider fired off her two shots as she saw something stick out above the rock. Cursing, she fumbled for two more shells. She looked up and realized she was too late. The last image she saw was a mallet wielding tomboy, angry as hell, bringing a righteous fucking hammer down on her head.<p>

* * *

><p>"Not bad Tomboy," ranma said as he dropped out of hiding.<p>

"Tomboy! At least im not an arrogant jerk who just took off and left a (formerly) injured girl by herself and then didn't help when two armed raiders showed up!"

"Hey, I had to clear the road ahead! You macho chick. You seem to be able to handle yourself pretty damn well. By the way, where did that hammer you just had disappear to?"

"What?" akane asked, confused by the suddeen change in topic. "Oh, that is a trick daddy taught me. You use ki to create a hidden space that moves with you. Most people cant do it, let alone maintain it. I can only do it with one item, but I can maintain it for weeks."

"You'll have to teach me that sometime. Now, there is a small town ahead. Lets scope it out."

* * *

><p>Descending from the cliff they had recently occupied, they snuck their way over to a small mound with rock cover a few hundred yards outside town. Ranma set his pack down and took out a pair of binoculars. Scanning the town, he handed the binoculars to Akane.<p>

"Three raiders. One armed with spiked knuckles, one with a pump shotgun and another on top of that burned out building with a rifle. How do we do this?"

"Honestly? You could sneak around back and take out the rifle. Take out the one with the shotgun with the rifle and I can take out the one with the spiked knuckles."

"Hmm. Sounds good. You sure a tomboy like yourself can handle spikey? She's decked out in comat armor and looks to be pretty good. But then again, I probably shouldn't be worried about at gorilla like you."

"Ranma!" she quickly whipped out the mallet and clocked him in the head, putting him out cold. "Baka," she snarled. He had to have a harder head than her if it could contain a level of jerk that strong. Seeing him start to stir, she quickly hid the mallet.

"What the hell was that for!" he yelled, jumping up quickly. "That hurts you know!"

"Quiet you jerk, and sit down. That's what you get for calling me a gorilla. Now, are you okay?"

"Im fine, it'd take more than that to take me out for long."

"Good. You go and take out the guy on the roof and the shot-gunner while I get into position for spikey."

* * *

><p>AN: This series is intended on being an AU set in the world of Fallout: New Vegas. Story arcs will be based on in-game content, one or two story arcs from the original i think would fit may be redone for this story, not certain though. Most, if not all, of the characters from the original series will appear in this storyline. I still dont know what order they will appear in, but for now, figure on the same from the series, with the notable exception of Genma. However, he will still appear in the story before even the Tendos. The character personalities will be about 95% the same as in the series, however this world (if you have ever played any of the fallout games) is much darker than the original series. Prepare yourself. This story will fully live up to its mature rating. Certain chapters (lemons and extremely dark ones) i will try to prepare so the reader can skip over them with minimal loss of story, they will be marked on the top of the page as such. Oh, i also plan this on Ran/ak/ry/uk/sp/m/na/ka/ku/ko/gos being at least 21 years old or older (add 5 years from start of manga). I will not be using much Japanese in the story other than the attack names and a couple other choice words. Please R&R.


	3. Chapter 3

Akane could hear a muffled sound come from the building she was hiding in the shadow of. She knew Ranma had taken down the raider on top of the building. She readied her hammer. A shot rang out in the quiet day, she saw the back side of the raider's head fly apart as a .308 round penetrated his head. She rushed forward, hammer held high, for the other raider on the ground. The woman was fast, but Akane was faster, bringing the hammer around, she impacted the chestplate of the woman, creating a dent in the armor.

The woman rolled with the blow and ended up on her feet, quickly detaching the chestplate, she rushed forward with the spiked knuckles for the young girl that had attacked her. Swinging for the girls head, it was suddenly gone. She felt a heavy blow suddenly take her in the kidney and was sent sprawling. She tried to stand, but was unable to move her legs. Looking up, she saw the girl standing over her, mallet in hand. She readied herself for the end, but it never came.

The girl walked away. Seeing her chance, she reached for the small pistol at her belt. She slowly drew it and aimed at the girl's back. Cocking the trigger, the girl's head whipped around, as did the hammer. With unerring precision, the hammer left her hand and, flying in a straight line, the mallet impacted her head. The last thought going through her head being, 'Damn, that thing must have broken the sound barrier!'

"You are a dangerous woman Akane… That hammer must have broken the sound barrier. I coulda sworn that thing made a popping sound before it hit her."

"Thanks, I guess." Akane knelt down and pried the spikes off the womans hands. One had the word _LOVE _engraved on it. The other said _HATE. _She suddenly felt very tired. She had killed three times today. She had never been like this before she got shot. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up. Ranma was standing by her.

"Cmon, this building over here is clear, looks fairly secure too. We have a place to sleep tonight."

Sitting inside the small building, Ranma had built a small fire as Akane boarded up the windows and knocked a small hole in the wall for ventilation. She sat down by the young man as he reached in his pack and pulled out two stimpacks. Handing one to Akane, he quickly lifted his sleeve and jabbed the needle in his arm and pressed the release that allowed the nanomeds to be injected into his body. Akane quickly did the same with hers and tossed the spent device aside. Ranma again reached into his pack and brought out two packages.

"What are those Ranma?" she asked as he tossed one to her.

"They're whats called MRE's or meals ready to eat. Can you read? Most people cant anymore. Its better here in the NCR, but its not a priority."

"I can read. Just follow the directions?"

"Yeah. Should only take a few minutes to make. So, why did you come here alone?"

"I had to finish taking care of some things back in California. My father, Soun, and sisters, Nabiki and Kasumi, came here to start a new settlement. They live on the other side of Vegas, a few miles outside town. Nabiki is the brains of the family, she was needed to get everything running. Kasumi is the heart of the family. After our mother died, she became the maternal end of the family. She cooks, cleans does laundry, everything our mother did for us. Dad is kinda the backbone. We all hold together thanks to him. He can be crazy, but we all love him. Im kind of the arms and legs of the family. I do the heavy lifting and protect the family. What about you? Where did you learn your skills? You're no older than me."

Ranma sat down on a cushion that had been pulled from a ruined couch in the corner. Akane fixed her food as Ranma sat quietly. "I have had a very difficult life. We all do in the wasteland, but having a psychotic father didn't help. I was trained to be the best for the first 20 years of my life. I was taken away from my mother at the age of five and haven't seen her since. I only just got out from under my father, but he is still in the area. Vegas probably. Lots of vices in him, and Vegas is the worst (or best depending on how you look at it) place in the world for that. His second worst idea was taking me china."

"China? What the hell, how did you get there?"

"Well, we went through Canada up to the Aleutian islands off Alaska and swam to russia and hiked down. We ended up at a valley filled with radioactive pools. Obviously something more in those pools as well. Pops and I each fell into different pools. We came back different."

"R-Ranma, what do you mean different?" Akane was visibly trembling once he had said radioactive pools.

"Hmm, oh, don't worry, I'm not some mutant freak." He stopped and sighed deeply, " You'll see eventually anyways. No point in holding it off. Follow me." He stood up and unlocked the door outside. Peeking his head out, he looked around then snuck out. Akane followed him closely to a water pump. Grabbing a conveniently placed bucket, he filled it up and tipped it over his head. Akane watched as his figue shrunk. A higher pitched voice spoke to her, startling her.

"See what my problem is now?" The voice was that of a girl. Akane promptly fainted.

Akane opened her eyes to a ceiling. She groaned as she sat up. "Glad to see your awake. You've only been out a couple minutes," the sweet voice called out.

"Is that you Ranma?"

"Sadly, yes. This is what happened when I fell in the pool. Hot water changes me back. My pops' is even better."

"Oh," akane croaked, "and what is that?"

"If youre unlucky, you just may see it when we get to vegas. Not before then." The girl turned and smiled at her, blue eyes sparkling and red hair glowing in the firelight. Akane smiled hesitantly and crept over to sit by her. The new Ranma was smaller than her, about 5'4".

"So, how long have you been like this?" Akane asked the girl hesitantly.

"About 5 years. I still haven't completely accepted it."

"Ranma, im sure there are worse things in the world than this."

"Oh, I know for sure there is, I done those things to people who try to get fresh with me when im like this."

"Troubles in vegas?"

"Oh yeah. Most of it was dealt with before I headed to goodsprings though. Now, we'll be in the outskirts of Vegas tomorrow. We're gonna avoid the southwest side of the ruins completely and instead stop in a place called west side. Its safe, has shelter and an arena. That's where I'll leave you off. You can enter Vegas from the sewer tunnels. Those are safe too, the kings started patrolling them recently."

"Did you say an arena? That's great, what do you fight there?" akane asked excitedly.

"Well, they capture creatures from the wasteland and bring them in, they occasionally bring fiends in, I even fought a super mutant. Was one of the toughest fights I ever had too. The big lug refused to use any weapons and I could see why. He didn't fight, refused to even when they pumped him full of psycho."

"If he didn't fight, how was it one of your toughest fights?"

"That's the thing. The master of battles won't let you out until you opponent submits, your opponent is unconscious or your opponent is dead, at least when its higher beings fighting. The mutant's name was Uncle Leo. I beat him by having a philosophical discussion with him on the morals of killing people and taking their stuff and cannibalization versus killing them for their stuff and not eating them. "

"Riveting," Akane commented after her stomach did a few somersaults.

"Yeah, I still cant figure out why he refused to eat people."

"What?"

"Im kidding. Neither of us were or are cannibals. I managed to talk him to sleep though. If you ever meet him, he'll be wearing shorts and doesn't carry a weapon. Very nice for a mutant. Very nice for a human as a matter of fact." After a pause, he looked at a watch attached to his pack, "Its getting late, we are gonna have a long walk tomorrow. Get some rest." He doused the fire and tossed Akane a blanket from his pack.

She curled up near the coals, watching them smolder and flicker, falling asleep quickly.


	4. Chapter 4

"Fucking crazy Bitch!" Ranma snarled as a bullet blew through the wall centimeters from his head. "Akane, toss me a Turbo from my pack! I'm gonna put an end to these fuckers NOW!"

The situation the two young martial artists found themselves in was due to the remainder of the raider party the two had wiped out earlier showing up, finding the bodies stacked in the corner of one of the burned out buildings, and not being able to break their way into the sealed building Ranma and Akane were sleeping in. The raiders, being mostly insane due to extended drug use, skipped the usual form of entering an occupied building (knocking on the door and politely requesting entrance) and moved straight to fragmentation grenades and a missile launcher.

After only managing to blow small holes in the walls and running out of explosives, the raiders switched to an arsenal that would make an NCR Ranger proud; namely consisting of an assault carbine, a light machinegun and an antimatter rifle (by any other name, a barrett 50 cal sniper rifle). The raider on the sniper rifle, the one currently pissing Ranma off by no small means, found herself surprisingly accurate with the weapon, managing to almost hit the martial artist several times in a row.

After Akane tossed the drug to him amidst a hail of 5.56 rounds from the LMG, Ranma quickly used it. The chemical was quickly absorbed by his body and slowed his perception of time. Having superhuman reflexes combined with now superhuman perception allowed him to quickly knock down the wall behind him, jump his usual thirty feet in the air and unleash a hailstorm of ki blasts over the area that the sniper was huddled in, killing her before she realized the building she was aiming at suddenly had a 5 foot wide hole blasted in it.

Ranma landed just behind the raider with the machine gun and quickly lashed out with a mule kick that sent the man flying head first into the building. Spinning and ducking reflexively, Ranma dove behind the shell of an exploded car as rounds from the remaining raider peppered the spot he had been in. reaching out with his senses, Ranma quickly found the raider and prepared an attack on the fool, but was preempted by Akane.

As soon as Ranma had flown out of the building, Akane had rushed out and around a half destroyed building. She paused only long enough to whip out her hammer. After gunfire from the remaining raider died down, she bull-rushed him and whipped the hammer into his lower back hard enough to separate him from his legs. Letting out a breath, she called out to Ranma, "Got him, you can come ou-" She stopped as she heard a low growl behind her, spinning around, she quickly found herself backhanded by a hulking deathclaw, throwing her across the way into the post of one of the burnt out buildings. The last thing she heard before blacking out was someone calling her name.

"AKANE!" He yelled as the beast sent the girl flying across the small road that ran through the middle of the houses. He sprang into action, calling up a light ki shield around his body. The turbo having just emptied out of his system, he moved as quickly as he could, his surroundings blurring, giving him tunnel vision. He slid low and brought an uppercut straight into the beast's jaw, knocking it off balance. Jumping, he completed an aerial roundhouse kick to the head, just as one of the deathclaw's (well, claws) swept up and sent him sprawling. Quickly gathering himself, he focused on the beast's ki pathways. Moving at blurring speeds, he circled behind the half-dazed creature, jumped onto its back and quickly hit several nerve clusters, causing muscles to contract wrong, placing excessive pressures on several key arteries in the brain. The new aneurysms in the tiny brain quickly ruptured, killing the deathclaw before Ranma touched down. He quickly rushed over to an awakening Akane.

Blinking her eyes open, Akane felt strong arms supporting her, "Feels nice," she murmured quietly, letting her eyes close slightly.

"Umm, Akane?" Ranma asked hesitantly, "You alright?"

Akane's eyes flew open as her head cleared. Sitting up quickly, she moved away from Ranma, blushing slightly. She felt his eyes on her as she stared down at the ground, "Sorry 'bout that," she muttered.

"Sorry for what?" Ranma asked as he stood. He stuck his hand out for Akane to take. She quickly took his hand and he pulled her up. "Sorry for getting knocked out by one of the wastelands most dangerous creatures? I wouldn't be sorry for that, I'd be mildly proud. Most people wouldn't have woken up from that hit; you managed to hit head first into that pole."

Akane looked into his face and saw him with a silly grin on his face. She shook her head and smiled, then reached through his arms and hugged him. She felt his arms wrap around her protectively, pulling her tighter against him. She pulled away from him just enough to look into his eyes, staring at the gray orbs she spoke softly, "Thank you for everything you've done for me so far Ranma. I don't think I'd have made it this far without you."

Feeling a stupid comment coming on, Ranma bit his tongue instead and thought for a moment as he lost himself in her chocolate brown eyes. "I wouldn't have done this for just anyone ya know."

"What do you mean?"

"There's something about you that I don't understand yet. I see something strong in you, something that calls people. I've never seen it before, that pushing strength, something people can rally around."

"I feel that about you too, a natural leader," She pulled away from him slowly, "lets get going. I want to be in Westside tonight or early tomorrow."

After getting their packs out of the now ruined house, they started hiking. Within two hours, they found themselves at the top of a hill staring at New Vegas.

"We'll keep to the edge of the mountains. Keep that hammer ready, we will run into raiders. From this path, it's only going to be a small number, but you know as well as me that any are going to be trouble. It's going to be an eight hour hike to Westside. We'll get in tonight, just late.

Ranma's predictions proved true, having run into two small bands of raiders, and the pair found themselves at the gates of Westside after midnight. They quickly passed the guards and found a spot to bed down in the back of a truck trailer. The next morning found the sun shining through a large rent in the metal of the trailer. Eyes fluttering, Akane found herself in a rather compromising position, namely spooning with Ranma, his arm draped over her stomach. Looking around, she quickly saw that she had been the one to move, her bedding being empty. She pulled closer to Ranma, feeling safer with him now than any time in the past month.

After staying this way for a while longer, she gently removed his arm from around her waist and slid out from under the covers. Shaking him gently, she tried to wake him, and tried again. "Damnit Ranma, you need to wake up!" she half yelled at him. Finally, she reached into his pack and pulled out a bottle of water. Dumping it over his head woke him quickly and activated his curse.

"Grrr, why'd you do that Akane?" the newly redheaded girl shot up, yelling at her.

Standing there calmly, folding her hands under her breasts she spoke, putting weight in her words, "I figured that it was payback for the other day when you dumped the bucket of water on me. I've been trying to wake you for ten minutes." She stepped out of the trailer and into the morning sunlight. "Today's the last day I may ever see you," she started sobbing softly.

Ranma followed her out and hugged her from behind. She spun the redhead's arms and cried softly against her. Pulling away from Ranma and smiled at the smaller girl. "Akane," Ranma said softly, "I'm sure we'll meet again soon. You don't live too far from here, and I'm going to be in the area for some time."

"I guess you're right," Akane smiled at Ranma-chan, "It's probably best if I leave now. Thank you again, for everything." She grabbed her pack and started walking off towards the far exit of Westside. Ranma smiled and watched her until she passed through the gate to the outside. He walked over to a manhole cover and hopped down. He had an old man to find and soon.


	5. Chapter 5

"WHAT!" the scream of a young woman echoed through the house. "How could you set up an engagement without our permission?"

"Akane, listen, my friend and I set this up before any of you were even born. I know you had a hard time the past few days and you just got here, but he and his son are supposed to be here today."

"Well fine, we get to choose amongst ourselves, right?"

"Yes, the agreement was that any one of you girls is to become engaged to his son."

"But Father, we've never met the boy," Kasumi, the eldest Tendo daughter, interjected. "I do so hope he isn't young, young men are boring."

"From what I know about the boy, he should be Akane's age." Suddenly, the four members of the Tendo household heard a noise from the entrance. "Ah," said Soun, patriarch of the Tendos, "That should be them now."

Nabiki, the middle girl, rushed into the hall and around the corner. Soun hopped into the hallway just in time to see her running back towards him, obviously terrified. A hulking panda maneuvered around the corner while carrying a person on his shoulder. "Put me down you dumb panda!" the figure on the panda's shoulder yelled. The bear quickly obeyed and set the young person down. Looking up at Soun, the young person spoke to him, "Hi, my name's Ranma Saotome, sorry 'bout this."

"Ranma my boy!" Soun cried, quickly pulling Ranma into a rough embrace that even more quickly stiffened as realization set in. Stepping out of the embrace, Nabiki quickly took her now unconscious father's place, poking Ranma-chan in the breast.

"I'd really like it if you stopped that."

Akane, hearing the familiar name, brushed off the shock and stuck her head out into the hallway, "Ranma! Its you!" she rushed forward and grabbed the other girl and hugged her.

"Akane? This is where you live?" She hugged her traveling companion back.

"So, I'm guessing you are here because of the engagement? Is that Panda your father?"

"Yes and, sadly yes. Listen, I didn't know about this until this morning after you had left. I stumbled over the fat panda and he dropped this on me. I'm guessing your father did the same?"

"Yeah, he did. Could you help me drag father in here?"

"No problem." Ranma picked the unconscious man up easily and set him down on a futon that Kasumi had pulled out.

Hours later, the entire bunch gathered around the table in the main room, having just finished hearing about the Jusenkyo curses and Akane and Ranma's trip across the Mojave. Soun was the first to speak, "Well, in a way, Akane's injury was what helped bring Ranma here, the friendship that has already manifested between the two will serve as a good basis between the two to help them build their relationship."

"Nice way of sounding like a complete ass daddy," Nabiki said off handedly.

"Nabiki! You mustn't say things like that to father!" Kasumi scolded.

"Well, do Ranma and I have anything to say about this?" Akane inquired with a not so subtle tone of 'if you don't call this stupid arranged marriage off, I'm going to hang you by your toes and let a deathclaw come after you father.'

Completely oblivious to anything subtle Soun answered as one might think, "No, the contract between the schools must be honored. In this day and age, we must have something more to live by than pure greed and fear. This is final."

"GRRRR!" Akane growled and ran off. Ranma, now a boy, looked after her with a disheartened look upon his features.

This look went unnoticed by all but Kasumi, who quickly took the boy aside. "Ranma, as you know, Akane has suffered through quite a lot recently. I think she trusts you more than anyone else in this house right now, at least with this topic. Leaving her back in California was not the best idea we had, but the only one we could make. It may be a good idea for you to go talk to her."

"Thanks Kasumi." He headed upstairs after a few minutes to find her room, made surprisingly easy thanks to a little duck shaped name plate on her door. Knocking gently, she responded after a moment, "Come in."

Ranma turned the knob and stuck his head through the door. "Hey Akane, mind if I come in?"

"Sure," she turned from her desk and smiled, her eyes puffy from having obviously been crying. "How are you taking this?"

"Pretty well actually. You, however, aren't," He sat down on her bed, "Talk. I'm here to listen."

"Honestly, there's not much to say. You aren't mad that we're being forced into this?"

"A little, but pops has been doing this to me for years. I'm more upset that this hurts you so much."

"Really?" she moved to the bed and sat next to Ranma, leaning into him slightly. "I just wish we aren't being forced. Get to know each other before we really think about something this serious."

"You talk as if you are actually interested in me," Akane blushed furiously at his comment, "Listen, I have an idea, we agree to become engaged for their sake, but we tell them that we decide when we make the marriage official. That way we avoid pissing off our parents and get a chance to know one another."

"Simple, effective, brilliant. Huh, never thought I'd hear something like that out of you Ranma."

"Hey! Any idiot could have thought that up!"

"My point exactly!"

"Hey! You sure didn't think of it?"

"Like you said Ranma, 'any idiot could have thought that up,' I am clearly not an idiot!"

"Well… yeah, no clue what to say to that." He stuck his hand out and spit in it, "Seal the deal, you in?"

"You have a deal Saotome!" without hesitating, she spit in his hand, stood up and walked out the door.

"Ewwww…" Ranma quickly rushed to the furo and washed his hand off.

Surveying the Tendo Family compound, from the roof, Ranma quickly realized that, even in the few short hours he had lived here, he felt more at peace than at any other time in the past 20 odd years. The young martial artist noticed movement below. Walking along a half covered path, a slim figure found its way to the out building, a training dojo. Silently, he slipped down and hopped over to the roof of the smaller building. He dropped onto the walkway and slid the door open a crack and saw Akane in her gi, breaking cinderblocks.

Masking is ki, he slid the door open just enough to slide his body through the door. He quietly slid the door closed again and snuck up behind Akane. Just as he was about to reach out, the floorboard he stepped on creaked under his weight. He barely saw the roundhouse kick the girl snapped out, but certainly felt it as he flew across the Dojo. Flipping midair, he lost no stride in walking up and slapping the girl.

Holding her face in shock, Ranma quickly started to berate her, "You stupid tomboy, what was wrong with the attack you just made?"

"Ran-" He cut her off.

"If I had been one of your sisters, you could have killed me with that kick. You know that there was no way to pull that attack once you had committed yourself to it. How would you have explained that? Yes, you acted on instinct, usually a good idea in a situation like this, however your instinct was wrong this time."

Fuming at being slapped and told off by someone only just her age on her art, Akane just barely managed to hold her anger in check, "How, then, would you suggest defending yourself?"

"First, how well can you control your ki?"

Akane sighed, "Not too well, admittedly. The hammer trick is about all I can do consciously."

"Well, when I am in a situation where I think someone can sneak up on me, I create a ki shield around my body that acts to deflect attacks. Knives that are meticulously aimed for my heart, turn in my opponents hands, arrows fly off and bullets are slowed enough to keep from doing any actual damage. That technique takes a huge amount of energy though, however my senses allow me to activate that with plenty of time to spare. Most of the time, as you saw in several of the fights we were in, I prefer to simply move fast enough to avoid contact with any projectiles or melee weapons." He stopped for a moment to gather himself and stepped away from her.

"Akane, I'm not trying to be an ass about this, but how long have you been training in the art?"

"Ten years, and only off and on. Nothing super intense. I know, you're more experienced than me," she stopped, suddenly thinking of something, "Can you teach me? I'm mostly self-taught, after mother died, father fell apart, and I was left to learn on my own. I want to learn." Akane had move towards him and looked up at him, her chocolate eyes looking for his acceptance.

He thought for a time, "Yeah, I will. Give me a month or so to get to know you better and design a training regimen and I'll do it. Until you're at my level of ki control, we're not going to do much in the way of sparring. We'll work your body into your ki, instead of the other way around. From my experience, your ki reserves will increase more quickly after you have control of your mind and body."

Ignoring the rather blunt way he put things, Akane walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek, "Thank you," she said, "so far, you've done nothing but help me." With that, she walked off to her room to sleep out the rest of the night.

"Huh, kinda thought she'd mallet me for putting things that way." He ignored the ground and instead hopped into the open window of the guest room, where he and his father were to stay."

A/N: The Tendo compound is going to be set up exactly the same as what the Manga was. For future reference, this story is to be set about five to ten years after the events in Fallout New Vegas. This is going from the best possible ending (namely the one I tried for). All factions that were present in the game are still here, minus the legion. Events that took place inside the downloadable content have not yet happened and will be a source of future story arcs. Story arcs that will reappear from the manga are introduction of main characters (the amazons will be bundled into one story arc instead of three). The minor characters will be introduced similarly, however adapted for this story. Enemies from the manga will occasionally make cameos (Hinako and Happosai are not considered to be enemies, but rather regular characters and others will be figured out as I introduce them) however it won't be too often that his happens. Namely, the musk and the phoenixes will reappear, not sure how many others. The appearance of manga-enemies will not necessarily happen in order.

For character abilities, all characters will have their abilities from end-of-manga time period i.e. Ranma knows all of the amazon techniques he learned and so on and so forth. Ryoga will appear more powerful when he shows up, having already mastered the Shi-Shi-Hoko-Dan and the Breaking Point (and has developed several variations on these). Characters in this story will regularly improvise and come up with modified techniques, one of my favorites coming from one another Ranma story I started (chestnut fist + ki blasts = machinegun ;D). That's all for now, direct questions towards my profile. Thanks for reading so far!

Sincerely, your host,

Titmeister-x

Laters!


	6. Chapter 6

Standing upon a frozen mountain at the top of the world, a lone figure fired off a huge yellow blast of energy into the upper atmosphere. The blast carried enough momentum to pass into orbit. Hours later, it would collide with the shields of an alien space craft, but that is a story for another time. Meanwhile the figure collapsed onto his knees and cried to the heavens, "Curse you Ranma, where am I now!"

Sitting across from him, Ranma thought Akane looked beautiful in the golden glow of the early morning. The two were sitting on cushions on the roof of an abandoned building near the Tendo Compound. They had been working on her Ki control for just a few days now, nearly a month after they had agreed to the engagement. After much bickering amongst the four of them, the two fathers and the young fiancées came to a compromise on the arranged marriage; the two would become engaged, but the progress of the relationship would move according to their plans, not the plans of the fathers. Support for the young couple came from both the elder Tendo sisters. Nabiki exhibited her skills in the form of negotiating for the couple and subtle threats to the elder Saotome. Kasumi's part in the support was using her more-conservative-values to dissuade her father, and the threat of allowing a certain someone in the household to cook only their father's portion of the meal.

'Back to the present,' Ranma found himself drifting. Using his extra senses, he could almost see the ki pathways in Akane's body. The past week had been spent manipulating the pathways into their proper places. Several techniques had been tried and all failed until Ranma remembered a scroll he had found in china. The scroll contained several diagrams on how proper shiatsu massages and acupressure could restore damaged or knotted ki pathways. Akane had been extremely testy about doing this, but eventually he had won her over.

*Flashback*

"Akane," Ranma shook her gently. Kasumi had just gone to her bedroom. He had snuck out through the windows and was attempting to wake his fiancée. "Akane, its time!" Her eyes fluttered, then opened wide. She nodded and quickly followed him out the window, having stayed dressed.

The pair quietly dashed across the yard and scaled the wall, then sprinted to an abandoned building (the same one they were currently sitting on top of outside the flashback) several hundred yards away. They quickly bolted the door and headed into the bedroom once Ranma made a floating ball of red ki. The mattress on the bed was several hundred years old, but was apparently made of space-age foam. A few sheets on top of the mattress and all was well.

"I'm not so sure about this Ranma."

"What, whether this will actually work, or about how you feel about me?"

"Ranma!" she blushed furiously, the red lighting only barely covering the fact, "Both, I guess."

"Well, I understand your concern about whether this will work, but it's safe. I was able to produce the given effect on my arms and legs last night. As to the other concern," he sat beside her on the bed and put an arm around her shoulder, "I understand that too. It's a very intimate thing we are going to do. Maybe not as bad as making l-love, but still." She smiled at his stutter, "No, it's fine. I'd rather do this with you than anyone else right now. Now, what do I have to do?"

Ranma dug the scroll out of his knapsack he had brought ahead of time and handed it to her, changing the hue of the ki light to make it easier for her to read. She scanned if for several minutes, suddenly her hair stood on end and she blushed a furious shade of red that was not hidden by the now white light. "Yeah, I can understand your issues with it. You sure you want to do this?"

She sat rigid for several moments before finally relaxing. She stood and started disrobing. Ranma watched, the ki light reacting with his inner emotions, flowing from one shade to another, playing Akane in almost a strip tease type setting. Now, fully naked, the light stuck on a shade of white and played off her creamy skin. She walked around the bed and laid face down. Ranma turned around and placed a hand on her bare shoulder, letting it trace down her spine, stopping just as the arch of her butt started. He reached over and pulled a blanket over the lower half of her body. Drawing on his ki reserves, he touched one of her main chakra's with his hand and let his ki be drawn into her, continuing the process, he went for the second one on her back, then the one on her neck. With three unlocked, he started to play the ki across his fingers as he massaged the ki flows in her back into place.

Soon he had Akane practically moaning in pleasure from his deft fingers. As he finished with her back, he helped her turn over. As she was turning, she reached up and pulled his head down to her and kissed him deeply on the mouth. Soon, he let his instincts take over and continued his massage techniques on the front of her body, his feather light touches driving her crazy. Eventually he finished and felt the smaller ki pathways in her body fall into place. He wasn't done yet though. He kissed her again, this time letting his hand drift to her breast. Cupping it lightly, he broke the kiss and took the erect nipple in his mouth, sucking on it lightly. He broke away and kissed her again, all the while fondling her breasts, trailing his fingers across her body and eventually letting his had drift between her legs. She turned her body slightly giving him easier access to her.

Letting his hand drift lightly over her clit, she shuddered. Smiling, he quickly reproduced this action. Using two fingers, he used a little more force, stimulating the clit more vigorously. Soon his ministrations came to fruition and he was rewarded with the knowledge that he had made her orgasm. As it hit, her body convulsed and his fingers were covered in her juices. He removed his hand and licked them clean then kissed her deeply.

"Ranma," she said pulling closer to his body, "That's the most I've ever done with anyone. I-I'd like to stop for now, if that's okay."

He kissed her again then whispered softly in her ear, "Sleep, I'll be here when you wake."

*End Flashback*

Currently, Akane was working on a meditation technique known as 'The Flame and the Void'. Ranma chose this technique for her to start with because, unlike most other techniques, this focused on a lack of emotion. He considered Akane to be a very emotional girl. Not that it was bad, but if she didn't have near perfect control of the emotion she was focusing on, she could hurt other easily. This would allow her to get the control she needed in order to expand her skills.

Meanwhile, a lone figure was swimming across an endless ocean. For miles around, there was no sign of land or live. What the swimmer didn't know was what followed him from the depths of darkness. With a flurry of activity, two huge jaws snapped shut on the young man. The monstrous crocodile stayed on surface for a moment, waiting for its meal to stop moving. Suddenly, a huge pillar of ki shot straight up, ripping the top of the monster's head off. The man stood on the lower jaw of the floating body, "Ranma you jerk! Why didn't you stay for our fight!"

After another week of training, Akane was finally able to assume the void properly. Having reached a new level in her abilities, Ranma decided to reward her. He borrowed some caps from Nabiki and started out towards New Vegas with Akane.

"Ranma," Akane asked the young man beside her, "Thank you for this, I have an idea of what we can do today."

"I'm glad you do. I had no clue what to do. Most of the joints I know about in Vegas aren't any place for a lady."

"Remember when you told me about The Thorn?"

"Yeah," Ranma stopped, "You want to fight in the cage?"

"I think I can handle myself."

"What would your father say?"

"I could care less. I am a grown woman. Will you take me?"

Ranma stood for a moment, impassive, and then he spoke, "I'll take you. Just remember this, what they put out is what they have in stock. You might get a giant mantis or a deathclaw. I can't help you in your fight unless you want to get shot."

"I'll take that chance. I want to try myself."

The lone figure wandered farther still, searching for his old opponent. He walked the alien landscape, a bubble of ki surrounding him, protection form the elements. He looked up at the sky. He wasn't quite sure, but was certain Canada didn't have two suns and a gas giant floating in the horizon. He was pretty sure that the lands weren't barren desert either. He continued walking for days. Then suddenly, darkness started falling. Once night touched the lands, he heard the screaming start.

The bat-winged, hammer headed monsters were everywhere, "DAMN YOU RANMA SAOTOME!"

Six fights straight and Akane was still going strong. Giant Radscorpions, Yao-Guai, raiders with heavy weapons-none could stand before her hammer and still remain standing. This last fight would be different though. He knew this because he was standing in the enemy cage. Her fights had drawn almost a hundred people to the underground arena. While he was watching someone had drugged him. This was going to be painful. Killing wasn't necessary; he just had to seriously injure her. Or she had to injure him.

The light flashed and the cage door swung open. Ranma immediately dashed out avoided a thrown hammer. Akane stopped when she saw who she was facing. Coming to a standstill Ranma looked her in the eye and nodded. Akane nodded back to him. They circled each other slowly. Akane moved first, throwing a high right punch, Ranma easily dodged this and swept down, throwing a punch for her stomach, but met resistance in her knee. She jumped when her foot touched the ground and brought an aerial guillotine kick down towards his back. He dodged again and grabbed her heel, throwing her off balance. He quickly dove in and knocked her on her back. In one move he had straddled her and brought his ki-wrapped fist down. Her eyes closed as he brought the hammer down.

Facing off against the tall creature with the mottled skin and the razor-sharp bladed bracer, the young wanderer thought this day couldn't get worse. He had awoken in midair falling at several hundred miles an hour. Ripping the harness of his chest he landed feet first, making a crater several dozen feet deep and over two hundred feet in diameter. He hiked through alien jungles, fought more aliens than he could imagine, and now, he faced off against a ki-wielding monster. He remembered seeing a holotape of an old movie that featured creatures like this. Predators it had called them. For a martial artist of his caliber, these predators were the prey. Except for this one. While not particularly strong with his ki, this predator was CAF (creative as fuck). He had created ki-weapons out of thin air, had used techniques that had shocked the young martial artist, but did not scare him. This fight had lasted for hours. He was certain that Ranma would be even worse. Now though, the young martial artist had new techniques he had memorized. Interesting battles would happen when he found Ranma.

Moving quickly, he caught the bladed arm with a ki-infused hand and brought his other fist up, blowing straight through the creature's skull. The first time his opponent had made a mistake in the entire fight. It was its last. The martial artist ripped the bladed gauntlet off the creature and stuck it in his pack. Then, he started out on his endless quest yet again.

Akane opened her eyes. Ranma was still on top of her. She turned her head to where he had buried his hand wrist-deep into the concrete. She whispered to him, "Its okay. You didn't hurt me."

He stood suddenly and moved to the side, reaching down for her. She grabbed his arm and let him pull her up. "Everyone LISTEN UP! You try that shit again with me and Akane and I will kill you all! This is my fiancée! Who was the one who drugged me? Throw him down here and none of the rest of you will get hurt!"

A commotion started, and suddenly, a small measly man ended up on the ground in the pit. Ranma strode over to him, lifted him up with one arm and shoved him against the wall. "Did you do this?" The man nodded, pissing himself at the same time. Ranma brought his other arm up suddenly and the man flinched and started weeping. Ranma dropped him, grabbed Akane and rocketed onto the upper level and walked out.


	7. Chapter 7

The young couple walked back to the Tendo compound silently. Akane constantly glanced at Ranma. He had a blank expression on his face, his eyes told a different story. She knew the path she would walk would be right alongside his. In the pit of The Thorn, she saw a new side to Ranma, one of darkness. Now, as she walked beside him, she saw him in a truly new light. Yes, she had killed before. She had seen him kill as well, but at the time, it had been necessary. He had not killed the man in the arena, but had she not been there, would he have? Her thoughts were interrupted as she realized he had stopped, she was now nearly twenty feet ahead of him.

"I know what you are thinking Akane," Ranma said after a moment, "The answer is no. I wouldn't have killed him."

"How do you know what I'm thinking?" She asked nervously.

"I'm not in your head; you're just easy to read." Suddenly he was right beside her. "Akane, I've come to care about you quite a lot recently, what happened in there scared me. That's not something that happens too often." He took her hand and squeezed it lightly, bringing a light smile to her lips. "Akane, I need you to know that I am never going to hurt someone out of revenge, I did that once, years ago, and I vowed never to do that again, unless the other person truly deserves it. That man didn't. I've seen him before, he has a small child. He was probably just trying to make a little money." Moving to put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her tight against him. Smiling, she leaned into him and the two continued on towards home.

Waking suddenly, a lone figure moved into a defensive stance in the blink of an eye. He looked around him and saw no one. Taking in his surroundings, he quickly realized he was on top of a huge building. Looking over the edge, he saw a small city surrounding. Off to the east, he saw a huge lake. Looking straight down, he saw something written on the steps leading into the building. Digging a pair of binoculars out of his bag, he saw a logo. "The Lucky 38… Isn't that supposed to be in New Vegas? I thought this was New York…" Packing his gear in his bag, he braced himself then launched himself off the building. "Ranma Saotome," he said as he fell towards the ground, "You will pay for my pain you have caused me these last few years!"

Blocking a high kick from Ranma, Akane swept down and took his footing out from under him. Astonishingly, Ranma completely reversed his momentum mid-air and took Akane by surprise, his fist grabbing her gi and tossing her across the dojo. Akane was starting to get sore, so she focused herself, trying desperately to find a way through his defenses. Suddenly, she felt her ki rise into her, by no intention of her own. Time slowed for her as her perception of the outside world sped up. Seeing a glowing trail that danced around the entire dojo, she instinctively started to follow it.

Diving from where she stood, everything moved in slow motion. Ranma's sweeping kick missed her head by a scant millimeter, she rolled, still following the trail, almost pulling herself along it. She stopped and managed a handspring feet first and flew through the air, missing Ranma's dodging form by milliseconds, she landed and immediately used her momentum to make a springing leap, fist first for Ranma's head. Her opponent caught her arm and started to throw her, but Akane's shifting momentum threw him off balance. Akane quickly broke his hold and continued the motion, whipping him around and tossing him into the wall. Ranma caught himself and immediately richocheted off the wall, heading back for Akane, who rolled and kicked into his stomach, sending him straight up. She continued the roll and jumped straight up, passing him. At the apex of his ascent, she came down with a double hammer fist and pounded him straight through the floor of the dojo. As she landed, her ki rushed out of her, leaving her dizzy and returning her perception to normal. She collapsed from exhaustion and lay on the floor.

Ranma dug himself out of the hole in the dojo floor and sat down by Akane. "What did you experience," he asked. After describing it to him, she rolled up and waited for him to answer. "Akane, the move you preformed is one of the most powerful ki attacks you can use. The name of it is 'Walking the Golden Path'. I have used it exactly once, and have never heard of a novice ki user being able to use it. You said that it was on instinct that you were able to use it?"

"Uh huh."

"Akane, that move is very dangerous. Its power is seductive, trust me I know. If you had had larger ki reserves, unspeakable things may have happened. The move shows the exact physical path you need to take to accomplish your goals. Your goal in that fight was defeating me, and you did. It's going to be awhile before we fight again; I have a lot of work to do. Good job too." He smiled, lightening the atmosphere a bit. As he stood, he offered his hand and she gladly took it.

'A disturbance in the force,' the lone figure thought to himself as he wandered towards the bending of energies. He stopped for a moment and looked around. "Every goddamned time I turn around, I can never figure out how the hell I ended up here!" Currently he was standing on a small, desert island with a lone palm tree, mutated sharks with two heads circling the island. "Damn you Saotome!"

A couple weeks after the spar in the dojo, Akane and Ranma were walking through New Vegas, attempting to find a small store that Kasumi had asked them to get a laser cutter from. She wanted it so she could make seared vegetables without having to fry them. Being completely lost didn't help them too much. Suddenly the crowd of people surrounding them disbursed. "Ranma! Prepare to DIE!" Ranma shoved Akane out of the way and jumped in the air. A figure blotted out the sun, catching the attacker's weapon, he redirected it straight for the ground. Landing on a single handstand he felt the shock of the weapon power through the ground. Pushing off, the ground in a five foot circle disintegrated, leaving behind a four foot deep crater. The attacker kneeled in the crater with his weapon like a wayward knight offering feality. Looking straight at Ranma, he smiled and spoke, "I found you Ranma Saotome!


End file.
